Russia has launched its inaugural rocket from a new cosmodrome, a day after a technical glitch thwarted the much-publicised event and led to President Vladimir Putin reprimanding the program's top officials.

The unmanned Soyuz-2.1A rocket carrying three satellites roared off into a clear blue sky from the launch pad at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the remote Amur Region near China's border at 5:01am Moscow time, state television showed.

The satellites separated from the rocket's third stage about nine minutes into the flight, heading to their designated orbits, Russian media quoted officials from the space agency Roscosmos as saying.

"I want to congratulate you. There is something to be proud of," local media quoted Mr Putin telling cosmodrome workers after watching Thursday's launch at Vostochny.

"In principle, we could have held the launch yesterday, but the equipment overdid its job and stopped the launch.

Those remarks were in contrast to Mr Putin's tough words after Wednesday's aborted launch, when he had flown thousands of kilometres to watch what the media and officials touted as an historic event.

Mr Putin followed up the initial failure by officially reprimanding Dmitry Rogozin, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the space and defence industries, and Roscosmos head Igor Komarov, his spokesman told reporters.

Vostochny 'biggest building project' for Russia

The Vostochny spaceport, the first civilian rocket launch site on Russian territory, is intended to phase out the nation's reliance on the Baikonur cosmodrome it leases from Kazakhstan at a cost of nearly $151 million a year.

Delays and corruption have blighted work on the cosmodrome, which Mr Putin has hailed as Russia's biggest current building project, with a budget of between $6 and $8 billion.

This is ... a very serious step forward in the development of Russia's space exploration.

Vladimir Putin, Russian President

Since 2012, about 10,000 workers have been building 115 kilometres of roads, 125 kilometres of railways and a town with housing for 25,000 people in the sparsely-populated Amur region.

The Soviet Union pioneered manned space flight when it fired Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961.

However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's space program has had to retrench due to a lack of cash.

It filled gaps in its budget for years by taking paying tourists into space.

"The main thing is that this launch pad is now working, it has been prepared well by you," Mr Putin told cosmodrome workers on Thursday.

"We are now facing a second stage here, to accommodate a heavy rocket. We have a lot of work in front of us, and it's daunting.

"But, beyond all doubt, this is ... a very serious step forward in the development of Russia's space exploration."